1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electrical devices and technology for causing external devices connected to these electrical devices to carry out predetermined operations on.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, in electrical devices such as image forming apparatuses in which an instruction is received from an operator to carry out an operation or the like indicated by that instruction, technologies have been employed in which a display portion is provided constituted by an LCD (liquid crystal display) or the like on an operation panel on a front surface of the apparatus, and instructions to execute operations corresponding to operation buttons on a display screen, which is displayed on the display portion, are received from an operator using a touch panel function, which is arranged on the display portion. In these image forming apparatuses, operation by the operator based on the display screen on the display portion of that image forming apparatus targets only that image forming apparatus for the operational control based on that operation.